CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS IN RIZAL’S LIFE

1861
June 19 – Jose Mercado is born to Teodora Alonso and
th
Francisco Mercado, the 7 of eleven children in Calamba,
Laguna. The family adopts the surname Rizal from the Spanish
racial meaning green fields.

1869
Rizal is traditionally believed to have written the poem Sa
Aking Mga Kababata. The most quoted stanza speaks of love
for the native language:
1877
Ang hindi magmahal sa kanyang salita March 23 – Rizal receives his Bachelor of Arts degree at the
Mahigit sa hayop at malansang isda … Ateneo with a grade of sobresaliente. He then takes up a
course in land surveying.
He who does not love his own tongue
Is far worse than a brute or stinking fish 1878
(translated by Nick Joaquin) July 2 – Rizal enters the University of Santo Tomas for the
preparatory medicine course.
1871
Teodora Alonso is jailed in Sta. Cruz, Laguna for conspiring
with her half brother Jose Alberto to poison his wife. Her 2 ½
years imprisonment is traumatic for the young Rizal.

1872
February 17 – Three Filipino secular priests Mariano Gomes,
Jose Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora are executed in
Bagumbayan after being implicated in the failed Cavite Mutiny.

Rizal and his board mates at Casa Tomasina

June 26 – Rizal enters the Ateneo Municipal

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 CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS IN RIZAL’S LIFE

1879
November 22 – Rizal wins the first prize in the poetry
competition sponsored by the Liceo Artistico Literario de
Manila for his poem A la juventud filipina. Rizal is the first to
use “Filipino” to denote his countrymen.

Alsa tu tersa frente

juventud filipina en este dia!

Look up with a tranquil face.

Philippine youth, on this day and shine
(translated by Nick Joaquin)

1880 Spoliarium by Juan Luna

December 8 – Rizal’s Junto al Pasig is presented by the
Ateneo. 1885
While visiting Paris, Rizal draws “The Monkey and the Turtle”
1882 in the album of Luna’s fiancée, Paz Pardo de Tavera.
May 3 – Rizal leaves the Philippines to pursue higher studies
in Spain.

August 20 – Diariong Tagalog publishes Rizal’s first essay El

Amor Patrio under the pseudonym “Laong Laan” which means
“ever prepared”.

November 3 – Rizal enrolls at the Universidad Central de

Madrid in two courses, Medicine and Philosophy. Rizal’s illustrations for “The Monkey and the Turtle”

1884
June 25 – Rizal delivers a speech in honor of Juan Luna and
Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo who won gold and silver medals,
respectively, at the 1884 Exposicion General de Bellas Artes in
Madrid.
1886
April 22 – Rizal writes the poem A las flores del Heidelberg.
Rizal stays at the vicarage of Pastor Karl Ullmer in
Wilhelmsfeld outside Heidelberg.

July 31 – Rizal initiates correspondence with Ferdinand

Blumentritt and sends him a book on arithmetic in Spanish and
Tagalog.

August – While in Leipzig, Rizal translates Johann von

Schiller’s “Wilhelm Tell” from the original German into Tagalog.

October 14 – Rizal translates five Hans Christian Andersen’s

fairy tales into Tagalog and sends them to his nephews and
nieces in the Philippines as a gift.

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1889
February 22 – La Solidaridad publishes Rizal’s letter to the
young women of Malolos.

1887
March 21 – Rizal publishes the Noli me tangere in Berlin.

March 19 – Rizal organizes Los Indios Bravos after watching a

show on American Indians at the Paris Exposition.

September 30 – Rizal’s Filipinas dentro de cien anos (The

Philippines within a Century) is serialized in La Solidaridad until
January 31, 1890.

August 5 – Rizal returns to the Philippines and practices

medicine in Calamba. The townspeople call him Dr. Uliman
from El doctor Aleman (The German Doctor).

August 29 – Rizal is summoned to Malacañang to explain that

the Noli is not seditious. Governor General Emilio Terrero
assigns Lieutenant Jose Taviel de Andrade as Rizal’s escort.

1888
February 28 – Rizal arrives in Tokyo and stays in the Spanish
Legation where he is offered a job as official interpreter. Filipino students in Spain
1890
May 25 – Rizal conducts research at the British Museum. He Rizal publishes an annotated edition of Antonio de Morga’s
copies by hand Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas in Paris.
Filipinas (1609).

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July 20 – Rizal informs Blumentritt that his family and the

Calamba farmers lost in the land dispute case against the June 26 – Rizal returns to the Philippines with his sister Lucia.
Dominican friars. He feels responsible for encouraging the Subversive leaflets are found in his luggage.
tenant farmers to file litigation.
July 3 – Rizal founds La Liga Filipina in Tondo, and meets
November 15 – Rizal becomes a Master Mason of the Lodge several people including Andres Bonifacio.
Solidaridad and uses the name Dimas-Alang which is Tagalog
for “touch me not” or noli me tangere.

As a result of the Calamba land dispute, Paciano and brothers-

in-law Antonio Lopez and Silvestre Ubaldo are exiled to
Calapan, Mindoro. Another brother-in-law, Manuel Hidalgo, is
exiled to Bohol for serving as legal counsel of the tenant
farmers.

1891
September 18 – Rizal publishes El Filibusterismo in Ghent,
Belgium.

July 7 – Rizal is exiled to Dapitan. Upon hearing the news of

his exile, some progressive members of La Liga Filipinas found
the Katipunan.
1892
July 17 – Rizal arrives in Dapitan.
November 20 – Rizal opens an eye clinic in Hong Kong.
September 1 – Rizal responds to the letters of Father Pablo
Pastells, S.J., the Jesuit Superior in the Philippines, on matters
of philosophy and religion.

Early December – Teodora Alonso is arrested for not using

the name Teodora Realonda de Rizal and is forced to walk 85
kms. from Manila to Santa Cruz, Laguna despite her advanced
age.

December 6 – Rizal’s father, Paciano, and Silvestre Ubaldo

arrive in Hong Kong. After Christmas, his mother and sisters
Lucia, Josefa, and Trinidad join them in exile. September 21 – Rizal wins in the lottery and purchases an
estate called Talisay. He plants coffee, cacao, sugar cane, and
1892 other fruit-bearing trees. He also raises animals and poultry.
March 7 – Rizal proposes to establish a Filipino colony in
Sandakan, British North Borneo.

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1895
January 15 – Rizal builds a dam in Talisay.

Early February – Rizal diagnoses the failing vision of George

Taufer who arrives in Dapitan accompanied by Josephine
Bracken.

Rizal designs Dapitan’s town plaza and embellishes it with a

relief map of Mindanao, now declared a National Historical
Landmark by the National Historical Institute and National
Cultural Treasure by the National Museum in 2005.

November 15 – Rizal writes La Curacion de los Hechizados

(The Cure of the Bewitched), acknowledged as the first
psychological essay written by a Filipino.

December 17 – Rizal offers his services as doctor of the

Spanish Army in Cuba to Governor General Ramon Blanco.

Rizal composes the song Himno a Talisay.

Rizal composes the poem A Josefina for Josephine Bracken.

1893 Rizal sculpts Josephine Sleeping and a relief portrait of

Rizal opens a clinic on his estate. Josephine Bracken.

1894
Rizal teaches reading, Spanish, English, Mathematics, and
Geometry to boys in Dapitan.

Rizal sculpts Oyang Dapitana and Mother’s Revenge.

1896
July 1 – Rizal confers with Pio Valenzuela on the plans of the
Katipunan for an armed uprising.

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July 30 – Rizal receives Governor General Blanco’s December 27 – Rizal is sentenced to death for being “the
permission to go to Cuba. living soul of the Revolution”.

August 23 – The Philippine Revolution breaks out while Rizal 1896

is in transit for Cuba. December 29 – Rizal gives his sister Trinidad an alcohol lamp
where he hid the Mi Ultimo Adios.
September 30 – Rizal is arrested and imprisoned in Montjuich
Castle upon arrival in Barcelona, Spain.

November 3 – Rizal returns to Manila and is imprisoned in

Fort Santiago.

December 30 – Rizal is executed in Bagumbayan and is

buried in an unmarked grave in Paco Cemetery.

December 11 – Rizal appears before Spanish prosecutors

charged with sedition.

December 15 – Rizal writes a manifesto to the Filipino people.

December 26 – Rizal stands trial before a military tribunal and

is defended by Luis Taviel de Andrade, brother of his former
escort in Calamba.

1898
December 30 – General Emilio Aguinaldo declares this date “a
national day of mourning” in honor of Rizal.

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1901
June 11 – The Philippine Commission passes Act No. 137
creating the province of Rizal from the District of Morong and
several towns from the Province of Manila.

September 28 – The Philippine Commission passes Act No.

243 for a monument at the Luneta in honor of Rizal. Swiss
sculptor Richard Kissling designs the Rizal Monument.

1912
December 30 – Rizal’s remains are interred beneath the Rizal
Monument.

1956
June 12 – President Ramon Magsaysay signs Republic Act
No. 1425 mandating all public and private schools to include in
the curriculum the study of the life and works of Rizal
particularly the Noli me tangere and El Filibusterismo.

1960
March 23 – Construction of the National Library building starts.

1961
June 19 – The Philipppines celebrates the centennial of Rizal’s
birth.

June 19 – President Carlos Garcia inaugurates the National

Library building.

The Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission (JRNCC)

collates and publishes Rizal’s various writings.
The JRNCC unveils historical markers in various places in
Europe visited by Rizal.

1996
Celebration of the Centennial of Rizal’s Martyrdom.
2011
th
June 19 – Celebration of the 150 Birth Anniversary of Rizal.

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Concepcion, eighth child, died at the age of 3.

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